1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a tape printing apparatus that prints characters or symbols onto a tape upon mounting a tape cassette therein.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2,556,232 (Pages 3 to 6, FIG. 4) discloses a tape printing apparatus that includes a display portion and an input portion, for inputting characters, symbols or pictographic characters. The tape printing apparatus is provided with a cassette accommodating portion. The cassette accommodates therein a tape that is to be printed and an ink ribbon. A thermal head that fuses the ink ribbon to adhere to the tape is provided at a position opposing the tape and the ink ribbon of the cassette. In this manner, characters, etc. that have been input through the input portion can be printed onto the tape.
FIG. 16 illustrates one example of use of the tape printing apparatus of the above arrangement. In the example, a tape 102 that has been printed using the tape printing apparatus is adhered onto a surface of a plurality of circuit breakers 101 aligned on a distribution board 100. The tape 102 is formed with character regions 102a to 102d printed with characters indicating connectors corresponding to the respective breakers 101 to which they are connected. The plurality of character regions 102a to 102d are printed successively at specified intervals. In this manner, it is possible to simply indicate connectors to which the respective breakers 101 are to be connected.
Blank spaces between adjoining character regions 102a to 102d can be formed by space regions or tab regions by operating a space key or a tab key that are provided at the input portion. The input portion is also provided with a new block key. The new block key forms blocks of specified intervals. It is thus possible to perform printing upon aligning a plurality of character regions at specified intervals through blocks comprised of fixed regions of specified length.